Dice
by AC Thorn
Summary: Gus Harper despises quests - especially when those quests involve wimpy Aphrodite kids, know-it-all Athena kids, and not to mention a giant. And yet he has to go through it all anyway. Perfect. Just perfect. Oneshot. R&R. T for language.


**A/N: **_This oneshot was based off of a character _very_ briefly mentioned in The Last Olympian: Gus, Son of Hermes. It's essentially the story of how he stole the pair of fuzzy dice from Chrysaor, in 1988. More detail on Page 49 of TLO. I also feel the need to mention that Chrysaor can be portrayed as a winged boar or a giant, and in this particular fic he is a giant._ _That is all. Hope you enjoy, and well, review.

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**Dice**

**o. By Acacia Thorn .o

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It was a sticky summer morning. Birds were singing, mortals were shouting; everything seemed picture-perfect.

The key word there is _seemed_.

In fact, nothing was perfect. Everything was going downhill—not that it had ever been _good_. It was just worse now.

We had been travelling from New York to Maryland, and guess what happens?

That's right. A giant attacks us, because he, obviously, has nothing better to do. So, as if that weren't enough, he also takes Shelby. Look, I know she's not exactly strong and she's pretty, but why her? Why Shelby?

Oh, and he was also famous, apparently. His name was Chrysaor—I think that's what Carter said. He's just weird like that; knowing all of Greek history, true or not. My day couldn't possibly get worse, now could it?

So of course we went into some sort of freak-out, sobbing our hearts out and wondering if we could ever move on.

I'm just kidding, of course. We're big, strong heroes, so it's no problem for us! Because we're just _that_ important, and we always get the attention we deserve and are not neglected in any way. Are you listening, Dad? I hope so, because I just wasted thirty seconds of my life talking to you.

"Gus, hurry_ up_!" Miranda called. Her voice was thick with either distress or agitation, and yet it was still bell-like. It made me sick.

At that point I was wondering why I had even brought the Aphrodite twins, Miranda and Shelby. They didn't seem to be capable of anything other than causing problems.

"Coming…I'm _coming_…" I grumbled, stalking over the motel lawn to the blue-clad girl.

Yeah, that was me: Gus Harper, Son of Hermes, poker-player extraordinaire, as well as the leader of this damned quest.

And yes, I am the one-and-only Harpy Boy, because I'm sure you've heard tons of stories—legends, actually—about how amazing I am and—

Oh, so you haven't? I thought I told the others to pass it on...Oh well.

So, we were somewhere in Delaware, right? Carter, being the smart little boy that he is, was the only one with any usable money left, because dear Miranda was not willing to share her last drachma, the greedy twat.

It was around this point that Carter started talking, and soon enough his nasally voice became a buzz in the background. All I got was that we were going back to place Shelby was kidnapped.

_Brilliant,_ I thought sourly. _Bloody _brilliant_._

"So did you get that?" Carter asked, sounding anxious. I nodded lazily, rolling my shoulders back and glancing back at the motel's front door. We would have to take the bus _again_.

Silently, I pleaded to all the gods I could think of. I _really_ didn't want the bus to smell like rotten cheese—again.

There was a bus stop across the street. We got on, and you couldn't _imagine_ my relief when I got a seat to myself and it didn't smell like cheese.

The bus ride was slow and boring. Miranda was busy staring out the window, a thick line of mascara staining her already-wet cheek. She was crying again…just like every day since Shelby's "kidnapping". Carter had fallen asleep—_already_—and I doubted he would wake up for a while.

I sighed and shifted in my seat, pressing my cheek against the window and trying to sleep, but it was ten in the morning and very, very hot outside, so sleeping wasn't an option.

It was going to be a _long_ ride.

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A few hours later we were on the side of the highway where Shelby was taken. We had gotten off at the closest bus stop and started walking, and now we were all wilting under the heat, sweat was running down my face by the buckets.

"Have you found anything yet?" I snapped at Carter, maybe a little harsher than I had intended to.

"No," he mumbled, shuffling forward in the grass. Cars were zooming by at what seemed like a million miles an hour and some of the drivers were giving us weird looks. After all, who expects three kids to be wandering along the side of the highway at mid-afternoon? And we didn't even bother with the _Highway-Cleanup-Crew!_ uniforms.

"It's so hot," Miranda whined, fanning her face with her well-manicured hand.

Carter and I exchanged looks of disbelief, but we didn't say anything. Miranda could be hell when she wanted to be, and we were lucky that she had only whined once or twice this entire time.

I didn't really know what we were looking for. Maybe Carter had mentioned it when he was jabbering on, but I wasn't listening, like usual. Miranda seemed to know what we were looking for, but she didn't say anything and didn't put any effort into it, so there was no point in asking her.

I did what I did best. I hung around Carter and tried to act like I knew what the hell—er, I mean, Hades—I was doing. Chiron doesn't like it when we cuss, okay?

_Remind me again why we're going to the place that all the problems started,_ I thought sourly, rolling my eyes as Carter leaned down to inspect the dirt thoroughly. Because we all know how important _dirt_ is.

"Just hurry_ up_," I grumbled, tapping my foot impatiently.

"I don't see _you_ doing anything to help," Carter said calmly, though I could hear the irritation in his tone. Oh, please. He was being just as annoying.

"Gus." Miranda sighed. "At least pretend like you care."

I knew that this was her "Oh-I'm-the-Daughter-of-Aphrodite-so-I-must-be-great-at-peer-mediation" voice, and I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. I didn't think that that would help me.

"I do care," I said hotly. "It's just that…I don't see the point in this, okay? Shouldn't we be trying to get her back?"

"I dunno," Carter said loudly, not bothering to hold back his irritation this time. "You'rethe leader of this quest, O Smart One."

"Then let _me_ decide where we're going!" I said evenly, folding my arms across my chest. We had stopped inching along and were now just standing there in the heat, swarmed by gnats.

"Were you even paying attention to what I was saying?" I gave him a blank look. "Never mind," he said hastily. "Just…follow me."

"Why should I trust you?"

They both wore identical, exasperated expressions. "Are you _kidding_ me?" Miranda asked, sounding dumbfounded. "Why did you even pick us for this quest if you didn't trust us?"

_Because there was no one else to choose, girlie, so deal with it._ "Sorry," I grumbled, trying to stand against her glare. But, boy, if there was one thing Aphrodite kids could do, it was give a nasty death glare. "I trust you. You know that."

I figured that my original answer would only get me a slap. You can't blame me, really.

A sort of sickening smile curved her lips. "Good," she said smugly.

Carter shoved at my shoulder, pushing me forward. Though he was two years younger than me, he was a lot taller and skinnier. I was happily stubby.

We began our slow death march once more, and I was sure that the heat and gnats would kill me, if nothing else. Personally, I thought it was Miranda's perfume that was attracting all the bugs. But would I tell her that? No way.

"Here," Carter said grimly. We had been walking for what felt like hours and yet the sun never went down.

I looked around and nodded. It was nearly the same as before. Broken limbs on the trees, bits of twisted metal littering the grass, and several large footprints imprinted into the ground made the lovely scene.

I almost expected Miranda to start sobbing again, with her mood swings, but she only turned her face into an emotionless mask. Had I not been so interested in getting the quest over, I would've stopped and told her off for being a disgrace to the Aphrodite cabin. They were supposed to be all about emotions and that junk, right?

"Where do we go now?" I asked Carter, looking around again.

He was quiet for some time, but then he pointed to some car tracks, nodding to himself. My brow furrowed as I frowned, trying to figure out what he meant.

It was then that I remembered exactly what had happened that "fateful" night.

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"_Are we there yet?" Shelby drawled, looking like she'd rather be back in her cabin, painting her nails or doing whatever she did for so long in that place._

_I sighed. "No, Shelby."_

"_Ugh. Fine. Whatever."_

_We were walking along the highway, since a _certain_ know-it-all got us kicked off the bus. Lesson learned: Bus drivers do not enjoy it when you correct them on their math—aka the amount you have to pay._

_And then, because everyone knows how ordinary it is to see two headlights shining at you out of the _forest_, we ignored said headlights and kept on walking. I was thinking about two of my favorite things. Food and sleep, both of which we were lacking._

"_I'm tired," Miranda whined, and Shelby nodded her head in agreement._

"_So am I."_

"_Can we sleep?"_

"_I'm really tired."_

"Gus!_ Are you ignoring us?"_

"_That's so rude!"_

_And that was my everyday dealing with the twins._

"_Fine," I said grudgingly, loving the idea of sleep but hating the idea of losing time. "We'll find a motel or something."_

"_Or something, please," Shelby said snottily, her nose crinkled in disgust. "Motels are so…ick."_

"_We'll find something," I said, clenching my fists around the straps of my backpack. I really should've brought more of Carter's siblings. Even the damn Athena kids weren't as annoying as the twins._

_It was then that a loud noise ripped the air, sounding much like an engine._

_Shelby cried out, but by then it was too late.

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Oh, well, that was stupid. What type of dignified monster attacked demigods in a car? Wasn't this guy supposed to be famous or somethin'?

"A car," I repeated out loud. Carter nodded. "He kidnapped her…in a car."

Oh, man. This world was definitely messed up.

"Yep," Carter said, sounding a little disgruntled. "We spend years training with ancient weapons and whatnot, and we end up with a monster—_in a car_. Gods, this is weird."

"That's an understatement," Miranda mumbled, biting her lower lip. But other than that, she was still emotionless. Honestly, it was mystery to me. Emotionless Aphrodite kids, car-driving monsters, and a stumped Carter—that was _not_ good. I knew what this meant.

I was officially in a different universe.

"Well," Carter said, taking a step forward, getting nearer to the car tracks and following them down to the forest. "Let's go!" he called.

I glanced back at Miranda before following him, realizing for the first time that we were standing on a hill and that the tracks led downwards. I wondered if the monster had crashed.

"Where do you think this leads?" Miranda asked a few minutes later, when we were all in the forest, still following car tracks.

Suddenly the tracks stopped, and I looked up. There, knocking over a couple of trees, was a beat-up silver Honda Civic turned upside down, with a lock of blonde hair hanging out of the window.

"Shelby," Miranda whispered, inching closer to the car like it might bite her.

"Come on," I mumbled, running up to the car, hearing the others close behind me. With a closer look, I could tell that it definitely was Shelby. It was the ugliest I had ever seen her. She was covered in dirt and a little bit of blood, and she seemed to be unconscious.

I wrenched the door open and climbed inside, lifting her up as the others tried to get her out. My hands felt sweaty.

Suddenly everything twisted.

There was a loud screeching noise, and I think I may have screamed—no, no, wait…guys don't scream…I _yelled_. I could see flashes of colors from the windows, but I couldn't make sense of them.

There was a muffled thump. I looked down.

Shelby had fallen out of the car, and Carter and Miranda had caught her. I breathed a sigh of relief, but then the car flipped again and I was thrown against the dashboard.

I groaned, feeling around for some sort of exit. Everything was going blurry.

My hands found the car door, and with some sort of luck, I was able to pry it open and climb out, free-falling towards the ground.

"Run!" I called out to the others, glancing over my shoulder, where Chrysaor was holding the car up high for inspection, seeming to ignore us.

Without further warning, we broke into a sprint, lugging Shelby along with us. But not before I grabbed my only keepsake from this damned quest: the pair of pink fuzzy dice that had been hanging on the rearview mirror. I wondered if anyone would believe me if I said I wrestled a giant, just for the sake of the Aphrodite twins.

_Aphrodite twins be damned.

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**A/N: **_So…This was basically made as a bit of light reading. And I was very, very bored. But that's my excuse for everything, isn't it?_


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